Modeling and Dynamic Analysis of Thermal Management System for Fuel Cell Locomotive

To improve the efficiency and dynamic performance of fuel cell locomotives, a control-oriented thermal management model with a fan in the radiator and a coolant circulation pump was built by the law of mass conservation, the first law of thermodynamics, and the affinity law. Based on this model, the influences of the control parameters including the bypass ratio, the coolant circulation pump voltage, and the radiator fan voltage on the stack temperature, temperature difference, and system efficiency were studied. The results showed that, the bypass valve would influence the stack temperature and its temperature difference partially, and change the response time of the thermal system, but almost has no effect on the system efficiency; the circulation pump was able to adjust the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of the stack to make it to be a proper value; with the same temperature difference, the system efficiency will be higher with lower circulation pump voltage; the radiator fan could not only adjust the stack temperature and the response time of thermal system, but also influence the temperature difference and system efficiency.